When Nick Saban is mad and wants to vent, it’s apparent he prefers to go scorched earth and take everyone down with him.
That’s what we all witnessed on Wednesday night when Saban channeled his inner-Nino Brown and attacked his fellow coaching “Kareem Akbars” over alleged NIL and recruiting improprieties.
At an event with local business leaders in Birmingham, Nino….I mean Nick, first sounded off on fellow SEC member Texas A&M.
“I mean, we were second in recruiting last year,” ranted Saban. “A&M was first. A&M bought every player on their team — made a deal for name, image, likeness. We didn’t buy one player, all right? But I don’t know if we’re gonna be able to sustain that in the future because more and more people are doing it. It’s tough.”
This isn’t the first time Texas A&M was taken to task for recruiting.
In February, Ole Miss’ head coach Lane Kiffin took a swipe at the Aggies as well.
“Texas A&M was going to incur a luxury tax in how much they paid for their signing class,” quipped Kiffin.
This also wasn’t Saban’s first attack on NIL and the new age of college recruiting.
Last month Saban attacked the infant NIL system, essentially stating it enables players to be bought.
“The concept of name, image and likeness was for players to be able to use their name, image and likeness to create opportunities for themselves. That’s what it was,” said Saban at the time. “So last year on our team, our guys probably made as much or more than anybody in the country.”
“But that creates a situation where you can basically buy players,” Saban continued. “You can do it in recruiting. I mean, if that’s what we want college football to be, I don’t know. And you can also get players to get in the transfer portal to see if they can get more someplace else than they can get at your place.”
His most recent attack is much harsher as he took direct aim at Texas A&M with unsupported accusations.
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